Cesar Brea has written a wiki page on OpenACS.org that explains the "what" and the "why" surrounding the recent announcement that OpenACS/.LRN is the first to support the IMS LD specification for designing open-ended, collaborative learning experiences online. Currently this is a univesity research project but as Solution Grove works to find the synery between online games, communities, and learning we expect this sort of functionality to be extremely useful.
Olga C. Santos is presenting at FLOSS International Conference (Jerez, Spain - March 7-9, 2007) two papers regarding the usage of .LRN at UNED. The first one presents the two different use cases taking place in this University, Exploitation (Innova Section) and Research (aDeNu Group), and the second one the on-going works of aDeNu group in ALPE research project where .LRN is used.
Martin Kloos' "Comm.unities.of.prac.tice 2.0" examines how three different collaborative tools; blogs, wikis and social bookmarking, support learning in communities of practice.
http://www.martinkloos.nl/thesis-M.Kloos.pdf
Solution Grove implements all three (plus forums) and I often struggle with how to explain to people which will work for their situation. Here is Kloos' take.
Social bookmarking focuses on informal information sharing and the creation of
a shared repertoire, blogs focus on meaning making, and wikis focus on knowledge
creation and collaboration. In other words: social bookmarking focuses on
informal information sharing, weblogs focus on informal socializing (e.g. interaction
and discussion), and wikis focus on formal knowledge creation and
collaboration.
You may request notification for Solution Grove Blog.